Several intellectual « autopsies » have recently reviewed errors in clinical epidemiologic studies of causation, such as the original claim that amyl nitrite « poppers » caused AIDS.

The current autopsy was done to determine why it took more than a decade-1942 to 1954-to end an iatrogenic epidemic in which high-dose oxygen therapy led to retrolental fibroplasia (RLF) in premature infants, blinding about 10,000 of them.

The autopsy revealed a museum of diverse intellectual pathology.

When first noted, RLF was regarded as neither a new disease nor a postnatal effect.